Hong Kong restaurants to face 20% drop in business over Easter holiday: expert
Many residents are travelling during the break while visitors are spending less, industry leader Simon Wong says
Hong Kong restaurants expect a 20 per cent drop in business during the coming Easter holiday, an industry leader has said, while the government estimates 6 million people will enter and exit the city during the five-day period, a 34 per cent increase over last year.
Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, said on Monday that the weaker business forecast had already factored in a 10 to 15 per cent increase in transactions as more mainland Chinese visitors were expected in the city.
“Although there is no Easter holiday across the border, we do enjoy benefits from the new multiple-entry visa policy for Shenzhen residents to visit Hong Kong,” Wong told the Post. “Last year, the outflow of Hong Kong residents to the Greater Bay Area was extraordinarily high.
“The drop [from normal business days] is due to the huge number of Hong Kong residents travelling, while visitors are spending less per person.”
He added that those from the mainland were not spending as much as they used to.
Earlier in the day, Wong told a radio programme that restaurants recorded a 20 per cent drop in business over the three-day weekend that started with the Ching Ming Festival earlier this month, worse than the expected 15 per cent.
Wong said rents for restaurants had fallen by about 10 per cent generally, which allowed some businesses to reduce costs and cut prices for dishes.